By My Side
by shadrougeforever
Summary: After years go by after a life changing incident, the Chaotix team is left without a guns girl. Things go bad for the blossoming weapon specialist, Rouge as she deals with the Chaotix's tough to please second in command, Shadow. When they don't see eye to eye, they're forced to work together when a destructive robot rages an attack on Tech City. COMPLETE


Doors had flung open as a male gray raccoon that looked like he was in his mid thirties was sent flying out of the Chaotix building early that beautiful morning. He had the face that screamed that his spirit was crushed. He got off of the ground and scurried from the detective agency.

In the main lobby of the building, a young male kid bee, a purple cat woman, and a male purple chameleon gave a black and red male hedgehog an uneasy stare.

The hedgehog wore a black trench coat, a red shirt underneath, black pants, and he wore jet shoes. He sat in a black desk chair that was setting behind a desk. He tiredly rested his arm on the desk as he used his free hand to type on the keyboard for the computer screen setting in front of him.

The kid bee whispered softly to the cat and chameleon. "Captain Shadow's doing it again…"

"Yeah? No shit!" The chameleon replied.

"Why is he doing this?" The cat asked. "I wish he'd just give them a chance."

The hedgehog's red eyes shifted over to the group of detectives. "I have ears you know?"

The kid bee's mouth hung open and had hoped the hedgehog wouldn't get too furious over the conversation they were all having about him.

The cat woman stood next to the irritated Shadow. "Come on, Shad. Don't you think you're being just a tad bit rash here?"

His ears twitched as he heard the cat woman speak but never turned to her. "Rash?" He repeated blankly.

The chameleon uneasily stood next to him as well. "I know it's been a rough couple months…"

"A couple months?" The bee added as he hovered next to the group. "Try almost a century!"

"Oh come on, Charmy! It hasn't been that long!" The cat woman corrected.

"My point being…" the chameleon continued. "…We're a little worried about you, Shad. After the whole thing with Arachnikina and all, you haven't been yourself at all. You…changed…"

Shadow had then stopped typing on the keyboard and turned away from the computer screen to face the chameleon. "I didn't change", he spoke in a cold and firm voice. "I grew up." He then pointed to the white armband he had pinned on the arm of his coat. In red lettering, it had a kanji that read 'Captain' on it. "You see this? Vector didn't appoint me the position of second in command for nothing."

"But Shad", he began. "You pretend like everything that happened with you years ago was some kind of fairy tale! We were younger back then yes that's true but you were so much more carefree…you had a personality…you smiled…laughed…cried…What happened to you, dude?" He was startled when he saw the angry hedgehog stand from the desk chair he was sitting in.

"I told you", he spoke in a deep voice. "I've grown up and that's all."

They were all suddenly interrupted when they saw a male middle aged green crocodile walk into the lobby.

The crocodile wore an orange vest, blue shorts, and black shoes. He had a gold armband around his arm that had a black kanji on it that read 'Leader.' "Okay guys, settle down."

"Oh!" The purple cat exclaimed. "Vector!"

He crossed his arms in annoyance as he saw the uprising tension between the hedgehog and chameleon. "What's going on now?"

The kid bee pointed at the black hedgehog. "Captain Shadow's picking fights with Espio again!"

The hedgehog gave the bee a hateful glare that sent the uneasy bee running behind Vector.

The crocodile shook his head shamefully at the hedgehog. "Shadow, what am I going to do with you? You see? This is why Espio can't be your partner anymore! You two have been working together so long, you're getting sick of each other! You're like an old married couple for God's sake!"

Charmy looked over to the crocodile. "But, boss! Since we're down a member, does that mean Captain Shadow doesn't get a new partner?"

"Of course not! Shadow's still interviewing people to take on the new guns girl position", he replied.

"Um no", Shadow had began. "First off, the title is guns man. Second, I will never consider hiring a woman. And third, I work alone. I don't need a partner."

A small chuckle escaped the crocodile. "You're dreaming, Shad! I told you how this is going to go. Charmy is partnered with me and Espio will now be working with Tonya."

The cat woman watched as the chameleon stood beside her with a love struck look in his eyes.

"If that ain't fate babe, then I don't know what is", he had spoke to her seductively.

The cat woman rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in annoyance. "You've got to be kidding me."

Vector turned to Shadow once again. "I know what you're doing, Shadow. You're purposely turning down anyone who walks through that door. You're not giving anyone a chance!"

"If you're so hell bent on getting me a new partner then why don't you hire them instead?" He asked as he looked away from him.

He actually considered just hiring anyone to see how well they would do working beside Shadow. However with Shadow's menacing attitude and aggressive training, he didn't think anyone would honestly last two days. "Because I believe in you, Shad. Only you can pick the one that's best for the job."

The hedgehog paused for a moment then slowly looked back at the crocodile. "…You're not trying to play freakin' match maker here are you?"

"Wha-what?" He stammered. "Me? I can barely keep tabs on my own wife!"

"I told you! The new guns man will be a guy!"

Tonya placed her hands on her hips. "That's completely sexist, Shadow! You think just because she's a woman, you don't think they can take on the position of a weapon specialist?"

"What? That's not it at all! I just so happen to think that women are distracting", Shadow had explained.

Charmy whispered over to Espio, "Does Captain Shadow have a problem with boobs?"

"If Shad's having trouble with finding giant racks attractive, he and I gotta start our guy's night out thing again", the chameleon whispered back.

"Well?" Vector spoke.

"Well what?" The hedgehog asked with a blank look.

"Prove to me that you're willing to give anyone a chance!" He pointed at the glass doors. "The next person to walk through those doors and ask for a job here, I want to see you spending time with them and actually putting some thought into hiring them."

"…Fine", he growled. "But it doesn't mean they're getting the job." When he heard the doors open, he spun around and watched a young white bat woman walk into the lobby. While she looked around the room in curiosity, the hedgehog couldn't take his eyes away from her. She had long silky beautiful white hair, her eyes were an off green color possibly an aqua color. She wore a pink short sleeve collared shirt with enough buttons undone to see her massive cleavage. She had on a black business like mini skirt, and black high heeled shoes. His heart raced as he stared at her amazing body. She had the body of a goddess it seemed. Her clothes were so skin tight on her, he could see every curve upon her body. He had to admit to himself, she was drop dead gorgeous.

Espio saw Shadow's mindless stare at the bat woman. With an excited look on his face, he eagerly tapped on Tonya's arm and saw her giving him the same look as well.

Charmy and Vector gave each other sly looks.

The bat woman approached the speechless group of detectives. "Hi! I'm here for the guns man position…or eh…girl. Who do I talk to?"

Shadow snapped out of his zombie like daze and brought himself back to reality. He turned to Vector about to reject the woman, but he saw Vector crossing his arms and shaking his head towards him. He sighed heavily as he remembered what Vector had told him. He decided to give the bat woman his full attention. "That would apparently be me", he spoke dully.

"Oh! Well, my name is Rouge! Rouge The Bat!" She held out her hand for the hedgehog to shake it but all he had done was cross his arms. She lowered her hand and gave him an uneasy look.

"Detective Hedgehog", he spoke. "I'm second in command here." He quickly glanced at her appearance once more. "So you're here for the guns man position huh?"

She made a nod, "Yup I sure am."

"…So what do you know about weaponry?" He asked as he arched an eyebrow.

"I know plenty", she replied in a confident tone.

"We'll see about that…"

She saw him turn away from her and start walking towards the hallway.

"Step into my office."

Before she could follow him, Espio had walked up to her and handed her a piece of paper.

"The name's Espio", he spoke in a seductive tone. "Master of ninjitsu, amazing cook, future doctor, the list could go on but let's cut to the chase. Not saying you won't but not saying you will but if you don't end up working here, there's my number. So uh I think you should totally hit me up!"

The bat woman paused long and hard as she rose her eyebrow at the chameleon. "Are you…hitting on me?"

"…Do you want me to?" He asked eagerly. He was suddenly pulled to the side by an irritated Vector.

"You just can't keep it in your pants can you?"

A sweat drop appeared on the side of his head as he gave Vector an uneasy smile.

"Sorry bout that!" Charmy spoke. "Espio goes after anything with boobs!"

A sweat drop appeared on the side of her head while she began to make her way to Shadow's office.

When she opened the door, she had made her way into the small office. She saw the hedgehog sitting at his desk typing on the computer setting in front of him. He didn't dare look at her as she entered the office. "Take a seat."

Nervous, she sat down in the chair in front of his desk. Judging by his cold attitude, she thought she would attempt to create a casual conversation before they actually began to discuss anything about the job. "The other detectives seem…friendly…"

"Yeah", he spoke blankly. "They're real characters."

When she saw him still focusing on the computer, she glanced around the office and saw a certificate framed and hung on the wall. It said it was rewarded to him for becoming the captain of the Chaotix. The date was set back a year ago. When she saw his full name on the paper, she shifted her eyes back over to him. "So, your first name is Shadow?"

He paused typing on the keyboard for a moment and then continued on. "…Yeah but you need to refer me as Detective Hedgehog. Captain Shadow if you get the job…"

She crossed her legs as she sat in the chair and continued to glance around the small office. There wasn't much hanging on the walls but something on the edge of his desk had caught her eye. It was a small picture that had him standing next to another woman. The picture had to be taken a couple years back. They both had the appearance of teenagers. The woman was a purple fox, the style of her clothing was punk styled and so was his. It made her form a warm smile as she looked back at the hedgehog. "You married?"

He paused and tried to figure out why she would ask such a random question. "…No."

"…Girlfriend?"

He stopped typing and turned away from his computer in annoyance. "…No. What's up with all the questions?"

Her eyes wandered at the small photograph setting on his desk. "You just…look very happy." She then saw him place the picture down onto the desk so she would no longer look at it.

"…Yeah", he spoke sadly. "I was…"

Rouge had suddenly felt awful. She thought that maybe she had just caused him to bring up bad memories. Now she figured he really was in a bad mood. She remained quiet until Shadow spoke to her again.

"So", he began. "Why do you want this job?"

"Well I not only want to help people but I want to work here to gain more experience and work towards getting stronger."

"Sorry to break it to you but this ain't no military camp. This is a D rank detective agency."

"Are you kidding? I hear a lot of good things about this place. Besides, what's wrong with starting out small?" She spoke with a warm smile on her face.

He sighed heavily before he continued asking her more questions. "What do you know about heavy artillery?"

"More than enough!" She spoke in an eager tone. "If there isn't anything I don't know more enough of it's precious jewels and weapons!"

So far, Shadow didn't seem very impressed with her. He figured that she was all talk and didn't believe she knew as much as she claimed that she did. "Okay prove to me how much you actually know. Let's take a walk downstairs."

Soon, Shadow had walked with the bat woman down into a huge armory room. The light in the room was a little dim.

Rouge looked around the room in amazement. She couldn't take her eyes off of the guns, swords, grenades, and other strange weapons that were setting on the walls and placed in different corners of the room. "Oh my God! This is so cool!"

Shadow watched as she explored the room and admired the different guns that were seen hanging on the walls.

"They're so beautiful!" She blew on some of the guns to blow some of the dust off of them. They looked like they haven't been used in some time but it still seemed operative. "These are double barreled semi automatic rifles! I bet I could alter the bullets enough to give them a more massive and explosive impact on anything! Maybe I could amp it up to make it fire like a mini grenade launcher!" She also admired the grenades that were set in a metal case setting on a small desk. "And I could probably turn these babies into freeze grenades!"

The hedgehog's mouth practically hung open as she saw her roaming around the room admiring all of the firearms that were in sight. He crossed his arms and formed a sly smile. "So, you're not full of shit like I thought you were. You actually know your firearms."

She turned away from the weapons and turned to the impressed hedgehog. "Duh! I may not look it but I specialize in all kinds of weapons. I'm telling you I'd be a great addition to the team! Not to mention I'm trained in kickboxing!"

Now all kinds of thoughts were running through his head. He had to admit to himself that she had impressed him. Not only was she knowledgeable with weapons, she had decent fighting skills. However, there was one problem with her. She was a woman and he hated the thought of having another guns girl partnered with him. He snapped out of his thoughts when she stood at a huge desk that was almost covered in dust.

"So I guess I should just go ahead and ask but do you mind telling me who the previous guns man was and what happened to him?"

Shadow felt his heart skip a beat and he began to get a sick feeling deep in his stomach. He slowly turned away from her as he replied. "…Girl…the last guns man was a girl…"

Her eyes widened in disbelief. She had thought that she would've been the first guns girl to ever work for the Chaotix. "Another guns girl? No way! What happened to her? Did she quit or…"

"No", he spoke sadly. "…She was killed in action…"

Her body froze as she listened to him. Judging by his sudden sad expression, it appeared that the previous guns girl and he were very close. "…Oh…"

He looked back the shocked bat woman. "Taking on this position isn't fun and games. Working here means you put your life on the line to protect the things you love and cherish the most. That's what Faye had always believed in…"

She wondered who Faye was. Was she the previous guns girl? What was his history with her? She remained silent when she knew she should have never brought up anything about the last guns girl.

"I'm sure you would make an amazing guns girl Rouge, but I can't hire you. I'm sorry…"

Her mouth hung open as he turned her down and saw him storming back up the stairs. With confusion and uprising anger she ran after him. "What? Wait a minute!" She followed him back into the main lobby with the rest of the detectives. "Hold on! You're not being fair!"

The hedgehog turned to her angrily. "You don't get the job! My decision is final!"

"But I just don't understand why!"

With his fists clenched, he turned his head away from furious bat woman. "I don't have to explain myself to you…", he spoke coldly.

She confronted the hedgehog angrily. "Look, I don't know what happened between you and the last girl that worked here, but I'm nothing like her and you would know that if you just put your past behind you and learn to move forward!"

"…Leave and don't come back!" He snapped coldly.

She paused for a moment and hesitated a bit before angrily walking away from him. Before she stormed out the door, she looked back at the hedgehog one final time. "You are so selfish!"

His body froze as he heard her calling him selfish. Just hearing that word brought back more bitter memories.

Everyone watched as she left the building with her slamming the door behind her.

Vector saw Shadow having his arms crossed and his eyes glued to the door. "…Shadow?"

He spoke without facing him or the group of detectives. "She was perfect, Vector. She was everything this place needed…"

"But why, Shadow?" Espio asked. "Why did you let her go?"

"Because…" He began, "…She reminded me too much of her."

"What? That's insane!"

The hedgehog coldly turned to the purple chameleon.

"You just can't handle the fact that you would be working with another guns girl! What did you think was going to happen?"

The hedgehog slowly shook his head. "…What if…what if I had gotten too close again?"

"Shadow, you never know what's going to happen in the future" Vector spoke. "Like that girl said, you need to put the past behind you and look forward to a better future."

"It doesn't matter now. She'll never show her face here again…" He bit his lip gently as his mind became clouded with thoughts.

Meanwhile, Rouge was walking down the crowded streets of the city. She stormed the sidewalk with her fists clenched. She was still angry about what had happened between her and Shadow. "Damn that hedgehog! He was the rudest, coldest, selfish man I have ever met! I hope I never run into him ever again!" She lowered her head to the ground in disappointment, "So much for finding a good paying job. Looks like it's the burger and fries joint in that disgusting shack of a restaurant across from home." When she suddenly felt the ground slightly shake under her feet, she stopped in her tracks. "That definitely felt weird…" She started looking around when she felt the ground shaking even more and more.

All the rest of the people were starting to scream and panic as they felt the ground shake as well.

"What's going on?" A man had shouted.

"It's an earthquake!" A woman screamed.

The ground had shook so badly, Rouge had almost lost her balance. "What the hell is going on?" She continued to look around her until she spotted a huge robot standing almost as tall as a skyscraper standing in front of her and the crowd of people. The silver robot was tall, bulky, and didn't seem to move fast because it was nothing but pure metal and titanium. She studied the robot harder until she saw a male light blue wolf wearing a white lab coat, red pants, and black combat boots with silver goggles on his head. He was standing on the shoulder of the robot.

The strange wolf laughed even more into the huge white megaphone he held in his hand. "Greetings my fellow Mobians! This is your host, Hao The Wolf!"

Rouge arched an eyebrow towards a police officer that was nearby and watched him talk into his radio.

"Requesting backup on Cosmic Angel Street…It's Hao again…"

The blue wolf continued to talk into the megaphone. "You will surrender your city to me and be destroyed! So let's not have any wannabe heroes okay?" He made a fake cough, "And that's mainly being directed to any annoying group of detectives!"

Rouge wondered what he was even talking about. She had wondered if he was talking about the Chaotix.

Hao tossed the megaphone to the side and made a nod to the robot. "Destroy everything so I can start put my new robot empire into action!"

Rouge watched as Hao jumped from the robot's shoulder and onto a nearby rooftop.

The robot began to walk towards the group of now fleeing people. In no time, police cars had piled in front of it. Police officers quickly got out of their vehicles and started shooting their handguns at the robot.

Rouge watched in horror as it kicked and flipped over the police cars causing some to even explode. And no matter how much they had shot at the robot, it didn't seem to make a dent through it's thick armor. Things didn't seem to look good, she knew it wasn't safe. Before she could run, the robot roughly grabbed her and held her body in its grip.

Hao practically drooled over the sight of her. "Well, well what do we have here? Hey honey! What are your thoughts on world domination with a super genius like me?"

She made a disgusted look at the self centered wolf. "I think you need a straitjacket", she replied in a repulsed tone.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Fine but you're missing out." Once he snapped his fingers, the robot began to painfully squeeze her body in its grip.

She let out a painful cry as she felt her body being crushed.

While Hao was watching in delight, he saw a black blur destroy the wrist of the robot. "What the?"

When Rouge had the courage to open her eyes, she found herself being held in the arms of the man she had never wanted to see in her life ever again.

The black hedgehog stood there while holding the bat woman in his arms.

It almost seemed like time had stopped as they gazed into each other's eyes once again. "Shadow!"

"Damn you, Shadow!" Hao had shouted in frustration. "No one invited your uptight ass!"

The black and red hedgehog still focused his attention on the bat woman he still held in his arms. "Do you get off on attracting trouble or what, lady?"

With that remark, she practically jumped out of his arms. "Well no one asked you to save me!"

"Trust me I didn't have to but it is my job after all." He saw her holding her arm and wondered if she was in some kind of pain. "Are you hurt?"

"I'll be fine", she replied as she took her hand away from her arm. She saw him glaring at the blue wolf standing on the rooftop. "Is he a friend of yours?"

"He's just another nut job…"

Rouge's eyes widened as she saw a strange yellow aura forming around his hand. 'What is that? And who is he exactly?' She thought.

"Chaos Spear!" The blast of energy shot at the robot and unfortunately it didn't do any damage.

"Shit!"

Laughter came from the wolf. "You'll have to do better than that to pierce my robot's new and improved armor!"

Rouge's heart skipped a beat when she saw the robot raising its arm towards her. Her eyes widened when she saw a gun barrel appear out of its wrist. Her body froze and she felt like she couldn't force herself to move.

Shadow had a feeling that she wasn't going to dodge the attack. "Rouge, move!"

She shut her eyes tightly awaiting for her deadly fate. Her eyes shot open when she felt her body being forcefully shoved out of the way. She fell to the ground hard. She slowly rose her head up and saw Shadow laying next to her. "Oh my God! Are you okay?" She crawled over to him while he slowly picked his body off of the ground.

He winced and groaned in pain while he held his bleeding arm. "I'll be fine. It's barely a flesh wound."

"Are you kidding? You're hurt! And you got hurt because of me…" She spoke with a guilty look on her face. "You didn't have to do that just because it's your job."

He turned to her with a smirk. "Heh, why would I risk my life for someone I just met and piss me off all in the same day?"

She gave him a confused look.

"…I don't know how to explain it but there's something about you. You're special somehow…When I laid my sights on you, I wanted you as the new guns girl right then."

She couldn't believe his words. He never really disliked her at all. She had guessed that he was only trying to make it seem that way so he could escape his own real feelings. She looked back at the robot that was making its way towards the two. She looked harder and spotted a small compartment on the side of the robot's leg. She assumed that was where oil or gasoline was stored. She gazed into the hedgehog's blood red eyes. "Shadow…do you trust me?"

He arched an eyebrow at the bat woman. "Trust you? We just met!"

"You said there was something special about me right? Well I'm not going to prove you wrong!"

His eyes widened as she took out a small dark green grenade from the inside of her shirt. "Holy shit! Get that shit away from me!"

She tried to calm him down. "No! No! It's okay! I took it from the armory room while you weren't looking."

His mouth hung open as he turned to her in disbelief. "…You what?"

"…Oh I guess I forgot to mention I used to be a hardcore jewel thief", she spoke with an uneasy smile on her face.

"You were a what?" Before he could say anything else, he saw her stand from the ground and run up to the robot. "Rouge, wait!"

She didn't turn back and continued to run up to the robot with the grenade still in her hand.

Hao watched as the white bat woman confronted the robot. "What's she doing now?"

The robot tried to fire more gunshots at her but she swiftly dodged them until she ran up to the leg of the robot. She raised her leg and sent a powerful kick at the lid covering the small compartment filled with gasoline. When the lid fell to the ground, she pulled the trigger off and threw the grenade inside of the robot. "Bombs away!" She used her wings and quickly flew away from the robot. Her and Shadow fled behind a car that had already been flipped over and took cover as the robot exploded and chunks of metal scattered all over the sidewalk and pavement.

Hao watched in disbelief as his robot that had terrorized the city exploded into pieces. "This is unbelievable!" When he heard helicopters hovering above him, he looked up and saw military officers pointing rifles at him.

"You're under arrest! Put your hands in the air!"

The wolf frowned and hesitantly raised his hands. "…Crap."

Later at the Chaotix, Rouge was standing in front the group of detectives while they were all standing in the main lobby.

Vector, Espio, Tonya, and Charmy gave each other uneasy looks as they saw Shadow standing in front of Rouge with his arms crossed.

Rouge lowered her head to the floor while she felt guilty for all the things that took place throughout the day. She couldn't help but to flinch as she heard Shadow's loud and firm voice yelling at her.

"I've never seen such reckless behavior! Do you realize what you've done? You costed the city thousands in repairs! You stole a dangerous weapon! You almost blew us to Hell! You're some kind of class A jewel thief! And…"

She awaited for him to finish yelling at her.

"…You saved the city and my life."

She slowly looked away from the floor and looked at the sincere hedgehog.

"…Thank you."

When she saw a warm smile form on his face, she thought that he must have really been grateful.

"Um…no problem?"

The rest of the detectives sighed in relief and was glad Shadow had at least thanked her.

He continued, "I've watched what you could do today and I've realized maybe I was being too harsh. We could really use someone like you here."

Suddenly a wide and hopeful smile formed on her face. "I got the job?"

The rest of the detectives smiled in a happiness as well. At last Shadow was finally giving someone an opportunity to take over as the new guns girl.

"Now I didn't say that", he spoke. "But I would like to work with you and have you by my side. Maybe I could give you a 90 day trial or something…" Before he could say anything else, he heard the bat woman squeal in excitement.

"I got the job!"

He was then caught off guard when she suddenly hugged him in happiness. Shadow's eyes shifted over to Vector who was giving him a sly look. "…Don't look at me like that."

**Author's Note: For those of you who have been reading my stories for the longest time, yes I have changed some things around within the series. I'll try to make more stories that will go more in depth with the new plot change. But anywho, I hope you guys enjoyed the oneshot! R&R please!**


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